The term dark culture (German Schwarze Szene, Portuguese cultura dark, Spanish escena oscura), also called “dark alternative scene”, is an umbrella term, used to describe a summary of parts of several subcultures. In this context the “culture” is not to be understood as closed subculture, but as “social environment”, a milieu, which comprises people with similar interests and preferences (e.g. dark music). Dark culture includes:
- the goth and dark wave culture
- elektro subculture (with genres like electro-industrial, aggrotech and dark electro)
- parts of the neofolk and post-industrial subcultures
- parts of the metal subculture (with genres like gothic metal, doom metal and black metal)

In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture (whether distinct or hidden) which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong. If a particular subculture is characterized by a systematic opposition to the dominant culture, it may be described as a counterculture.

As early as 1950, David Riesman distinguished between a majority, “which passively accepted commercially provided styles and meanings, and a ’subculture’ which actively sought a minority style … and interpreted it in accordance with subversive values”.

Identifying subcultures

Subcultures can be distinctive because of the age, ethnicity, class, location, and/or gender of the members. The qualities that determine a subculture as distinct may be linguistic, aesthetic, religious, political, sexual, geographical, or a combination of factors.

The study of subcultures often consists of the study of symbolism attached to clothing, music and other visible affectations by members of subcultures, and also the ways in which these same symbols are interpreted by members of the dominant culture. Subcultures have been chronicled by others for a long time, documented, analysed, classified, rationalised, monitored, scrutinised. In some cases, subcultures have been legislated against, their activities regulated or curtailed.

Subcultures’ relationships with mainstream culture

It may be difficult to identify certain subcultures because their style (particularly clothing and music) may be adopted by mass culture for commercial purposes. Businesses often seek to capitalize on the subversive allure of subcultures in search of cool, which remains valuable in the selling of any product. This process of cultural appropriation may often result in the death or evolution of the subculture, as its members adopt new styles that appear alien to mainstream society. This process provides a constant stream of styles which may be commercially adopted.

Music-based subcultures are particularly vulnerable to this process, and so what may be considered a subculture at one stage in its history—such as jazz, goth, punk, hip hop and rave cultures—may represent mainstream taste within a short period of time. Some subcultures reject or modify the importance of style, stressing membership through the adoption of an ideology which may be much more resistant to commercial exploitation.The punk subculture’s distinctive (and initially shocking) style of clothing was adopted by mass-market fashion companies once the subculture became a media interest.

Source: Wikipedia